More than foot of snow hits southeast Minnesota, grazes Twin Cities area

A historic May snowstorm left parts of Minnesota under more than a foot of snow Thursday morning, causing residents to curse as they shoveled yet another round of heavy, cement-like snow.

But in Minneapolis and St. Paul, residents saw nary a flake because the storm came up from the south and veered east before hitting the metro area.

While residents in Woodbury and other cities on the storm’s fringe grumbled about 3 inches covering their greening grass, cities hit hard by the storm were forced to rev up snowblowers at a time when they would prefer to be mowing lawns.

According to the National Weather Service, the record-breaking spring snow dumped about 18 inches in Blooming Prairie, 15 inches in Zumbrota, more than a foot in Rochester and about 8 inches in Farmington. The heavy snow knocked down power lines, snapped tree limbs and gave some students what likely was an unprecedented snow day in May.

“It was probably the sharpest cutoff from heavy snow to nothing that you will ever see besides like in the mountains,” said Chris Franks, a National Weather Service forecaster. The impressive snow totals in many of the hard-hit cities were “three to four times their all-time May record,” he said.

“For perspective, the Twin Cities record for a May snow event is 3 inches,” Franks said. “This absolutely was a historic storm.”

And we hope it’s winter’s last hurrah.

A little snow mixed with snow might fall late Friday afternoon and into the evening, but temperatures in the 40s on Friday and Saturday should keep winter at bay, although rain is expected during the day Saturday. Sunshine will boost temperatures toward 60 by Sunday and then into the 70s by next week, Franks said.